They Should’ve called it Agra Can’t

Hi from Delhi! We made it…so far and India has been pretty great. We’re not sick yet at all and we’ve been eating all sorts of weird things off the street, ok mostly curry and these deep fried battery honey things that have me all hyped right now. Delhi is a crazy city though not as…well, not as anything as I had expected. After living in Sri Lanka for a year we have a pretty good understanding of some of the idiosyncrasies of the Indian subcontinent and we had been told that Delhi is like Colombo on steroids. But, it’s not as crowded or noisy or dirty as I expected (though it is all those things…;)

We are staying in the craziest place, it's called the Main Bazaar and it's a muddled collection of narrow streets packed with colourful textile shops, curry booths, coconut vendors, chai stalls, mobile phone shops and cows...and cycle rickshaws and motorbikes and hashbrown stalls and more cows and incense and henna tattooist that want to henna my hands everytime I walk by and I keep saying no to that…everytime I walk by! Oh, and more cows and dogs and cow @#$$*!

But…on to the theme of the day…Agra CAN’T. It’s supposed to be Agra Cantt, no idea what it means but it’s the name of the train station near the Taj Mahal. Three hours from Delhi. When we were planning our trip to Nepal we decided to come through India, mostly to see the Taj so we were quite excited to go and arranged our schedule around when we could get train tickets and…(Jamie, can you feel it coming?)…it was CLOSED! So VIP UN delegation was in town so they closed it so those guys could have a private tour. BOO! So, we had the most delicious butter chicken on a rooftop restaurant looking at the Taj Mahal and then decided we’d try to go to the Agra Fort (also an ancient Moghul building). However…it was also closed! Same important people. So…we decided to try the “Baby Taj Mahal” which is a smaller tomb built for the grandparents of the Taj builder ( I think) and the first marble tomb in the area. It’s really cool, though still not the Taj Mahal.

Anyways, then we started to make our way back to our train station, being foiled at all turns by closed roads FOR THE VIPS! I was starting to get a little tired of it by then, but we waited somewhat patiently and eventually got through. We were in a trishaw amongst a crowd of bikes, rickshaws, truck, motorbikes and all facing a rope across the road. There were probably a hundred or more people there and many were out of their vehicles in the shade. Then…when the crowd sensed the rope was about to come down it was pandemonium. Like dropping some sugar near an ant hill, or the scene from the movie “Hidalgo” when the famous race starts. Everyone starting sprinting to their vehicles and revving the engines and generally trying to be first. Then…it we hit the traffic circle 50 metres ahead and it was like being one of the ants. Like everyone knew what to do and where to go so no one would be run over. It was laugh out loud amazing.

So, Agra…can’t. Can’t go to the Taj Mahal, Can’t go to the fort, can’t get to the railway station!!

Anyways., tomorrow we’ll hang around Delhi, try to see some of the city and then grab the overnight train to Gorakhpur, near Nepal. Then…a 3 hour bus, then a 10 hour bus, and hopefully a pre-midnite arrival in Kathmandu! Wish us luck.

PS, believe it or not, we’re the cleanest, preppiest looking backpackers in town!